Royal Mail cancels Stampex attendance due to CWU strike

By David Hartwig

On Sept. 23, Royal Mail announced that it will not attend the fall 2022 British national stamp exhibition, known as Stampex, which will take place Sept. 28-Oct. 1 at the Business Design Centre, 52 Upper St., Islington, London, England.

According to Royal Mail, this follows the notice of industrial action to take place from Sept. 30 to Oct. 1 by its largest labor union, the Communication Workers Union.

“Our Stamps and Collectibles team would like to apologise to all our customers who were hoping to see us at Stampex,” a spokesperson from Royal Mail said.

“Unfortunately, it proved impossible to organise and staff a Royal Mail stand at the show during the strike action.”

In a Sept. 22 press release, Royal Mail informed the Communication Workers Union that it wanted to “modernise the ways of working with them.”

Royal Mail “intends to move to a more modern industrial relations framework designed to make the business more agile, and able to compete more effectively,” according to the press release.

Following publication of the Royal Mail press release, Dave Ward, general secretary of the Communication Workers Union, told Reuters that the union stood in opposition against “such an historic institution being turned into a gig economy employer,” according to an article posted online Sept. 22.

Reuters stated that the Communication Workers Union posted to Facebook shortly after Royal Mail issued its press release. The post “called on workers to support planned strike action,” Reuters said.

According to Reuters, Royal Mail and the Communication Workers Union have been in a deadlock over pay since April.

A union strike this summer cost the company about £1 million (approximately $1.1 million) a day, Reuters said.

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